Born in Snow Hill, AL, on July 23, 1928, bassist Bill Lee was a prolific sideman and session player for numerous jazz, folk, and pop recordings, first in Chicago during the 1940s and '50s, then in New York from 1959. The founder of the New York Bass Violin Choir, he worked with leader Ted Harris during the '80s on the Harris & Dyer label. The father of film director Spike Lee, the elder Lee has composed original music for a number of his son's movies, notably Do the Right Thing, for which he won the Best Music prize at the 1989 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. Bill Lee died at his home in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on May 24, 2023; he was 94 years of age. ~ John Bush